I’m A Brooklyn Baby: Finding Fellowship In Hugh Ryan’s “When Brooklyn Was Queer”
Books

I’m A Brooklyn Baby: Finding Fellowship In Hugh Ryan’s “When Brooklyn Was Queer”

A young, fey sprite-like Truman Capote lounges, spread out on two ornate chairs, wielding a cigarette holder much like Holly Golightly from his Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Though Capote is at his most beautiful, not booze-bloated as his later years, he is somehow the least interesting thing in this photograph by Slim Aarons. The writer is … Continue reading

Institutionalization Keeps Me Awake At Night: David Wojnarowicz, The Whitney and the Violence of the Canon
Art

Institutionalization Keeps Me Awake At Night: David Wojnarowicz, The Whitney and the Violence of the Canon

One of the last works on view in the winding, labyrinth-like galleries of the Whitney Museum’s long awaited David Wojnarowicz retrospective History Keeps Me Awake At Night features a hand, presumably the artist’s own, holding a tiny, adorable frog. Just one example of Wojnarowicz’s lifelong affinity for creepy-crawly things–bugs, frogs, snakes, etc., this tender and … Continue reading

How Do We Make Them Listen: Thoughts on (re)Presenting AIDS: Culture & Accountability
Art

How Do We Make Them Listen: Thoughts on (re)Presenting AIDS: Culture & Accountability

Visual AIDS and the Pop-Up Museum of Queer History hosted a public forum, (re)Presenting AIDS: Culture & Accountability, to discuss the responsibilities of museums, galleries and other institutions when mounting exhibitions about HIV/AIDS. Organized in part due to Pop Up Museum of Queer History’s Hugh Ryan’s insightful New York Times editorial “How To Whitewash A Plague,” the forum was designed to, as moderator Ann Northrop described, create a space for “productive thinking for future work,” as well as understand the way the community interacts with cultural institutions. Continue reading